Cultural Literacy for kids

Despite the fact that we do not have cable, I was surprised to learn that my kids have a complete familiarity with all television shows Disney. An assurance for any parents who may be concerned that their kids need to be exposed to 'typical' kid stuff...like TV. My kids do not stay with other folks regularly. They spend the night with their cousins and grandparents a few times per year and sometimes go to their friends' homes. We allow kid channels, a good bit, when we're off at the resorts or hotels as a treat, especially since we're busy most of the day and it's not so much. However, the kids can explain the relationships of all the characters to me. Shows come on and they say, bored, "I've seen this one before. It's a re-run." Meanwhile, I've never heard of the show, as I don't generally watch the Disney channel even when given the golden opportunity.

So, I feel validated in my belief that we don't need to worry about providing pop culture to our kids--they're gonna get it anyway, to a certain extent (hopefully all safe and sound and ethical for, well, ever).

At one of our museum visits, I picked up a neat, fat little paperback called 'The Handy Book for Girls' from the 19th century. It's a treasure trove of cool activities, really! It's also written in a very enjoyable way, and the authors seem perfectly modern to me (though perhaps you're thinking it's the other way around and I should have lived in their era!). Amazing to imagine a time when they truly had no TV, no radio, no recorded music, no cars... Evenings of normal, healthy American girls were full of crafts and self-made games.

Anyhow, Fiona and I just completed one of the craft activities. Decorating eggs. Of course, she got distracted and ran off to play with her friend before finishing her egg, but she did the hair and drew the face on the egg with the pink bonnet.